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Chapter 3 Have our fish had their chips?

Chapter 3 – Have our fish had their chips?

Readers interested in the background to the impacts arising from marine fishing will find excellent material in Roberts, C., (2007). The Unnatural History of the Sea: The Past and Future of Humanity and Fishing. Gaia Books.

64. On the relative supply of fish coming from wild sources compared with farmed fish see this World Bank source for some of the basics:

65. Page 65 has some details about the natural history of wild cod, including the long distance movements that some fish make. This material comes from C.T. Macer and EASEY, M.W. (1988). The North Sea cod and the English Fishery. Laboratory Leaflet No 61. DEFRA. It can be reached on-line here: http://www.cefas.defra.gov.uk/publications/lableaflets/lableaflet61.pdf

66. I also mention there the population of Bluefin Tuna that once lived in the North Sea. For more on the collapse of that species in our waters this paper provides an excellent starting point. Census of Marine Life. Collapse Of Bluefin Tuna Population Off Northern Europe Described. ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 7 August 2007. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070805124347.htm

66. I also mention the effects on marine environments of nutrient pollution coming from land. For more on this see for example Gowen, R. J. & Stewart, B. M., (2005). The Irish Sea: nutrient status and phytoplankton. Journal of Sea Research 54, pp.36-50. This paper finds major changes in vital plankton populations caused by nutrients. You can find it on-line here: http://www.vliz.be/en/imis?module=ref&refid=74632

67. I mention the incidence of human disease caused by seafood. You can find the source for the figures I cite in Adak, G. K. et al, (2005). Disease risks from foods, England and Wales, 1996-2000. Emerging infectious diseases 11:3 pp.365-372.

67. In relation to the effects of technology development then see Engelhard, G. H., (2005). Catalogue of Defra historical catch and effort charts: six decades of detailed spatial statistics for British fisheries. Sci. Serv. Tech. Rep., Cefas Lowestoft, No. 128: 42pp. You can find that source on line here: http://www.cefas.defra.gov.uk/publications/techrep/tech128.pdf

67. On the amount of seafood we consume in the UK each year figures are from Seafish (2009) Facts about seafood from http://www.seafish.org

78. For data relating to the proportion of fish caught in UK waters that are taken by British registered vessels, I took my number from the UK National Ecosystem Assessment (2011) The UK National Ecosystem Assessment Technical Report. UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge, p471. Scroll down and click onto Chapter 12. http://uknea.unep-wcmc.org/Resources/tabid/82/Default.aspx

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Who is Tony Juniper

Tony Juniper is a campaigner, writer, sustainability adviser
and a well-known British environmentalist. For more than 25 years he
has worked for change toward a more sustainable society at local,
national and international levels.